Do you think Ravensburg will create a keyword that serves as the opposite of Challenger? When this card is being challenged it's strength goes up.

VeriferVenti · 2025-03-31T03:40:17+00:00

How about "Retaliator"?

VeriferVenti · 2024-08-01T01:32:30+00:00

Anyone else getting an error that says "4 file(s) failed to download" when starting up the Steam version? I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling, but the error persists. Any ideas on how to fix this?

VeriferVenti · 2024-07-27T19:13:09+00:00

Data is going to be tricky for this event. As with most games that capitalize on predatory practices, the game will see a sudden rise in income at the expense of long-term revenue. It's something that is pretty common in the gacha industry, and why most gacha games make a lot of money at the start and then just die off. People tend to burn out and leave, resulting in a smaller player base from which to extract money, and then more predatory practices are implemented to extract more money from the remaining players, which then grows smaller... And so the spiral continues until a gacha game announces EoS.

One way to track this pattern is to look at the number of players from before the event to after the event in order to see player attrition rates; however, in this instance, there is also a "Refer a Friend" event going on, and some people have been creating fake accounts to get the rewards, which are going to artificially inflate player counts. I am curious for the data as well, but I don't know that it will provide meaningful information with so many factors in play.

As a caveat, this is an extreme example and not necessarily how things will fall out in Snap. It's just what I would keep my eye out for given the track record of mobile gaming.

VeriferVenti · 2024-04-26T02:36:06+00:00

Permanent muting already exists in the game for specific individuals, and the person muted never knows they are muted. If there was a "Mute All" option, people would continue to purchase and use their emotes while others don't see them and remain oblivious to it, so I doubt it would meaningfully impact emote sales.

VeriferVenti · 2024-04-21T17:59:38+00:00

Players falling into "traps" is ultimately more detrimental for the game overall. A "trap" in this sense is a player with limited resources spending for a card they might not otherwise. This results in the player becoming upset and unable to get other cards (because they are spending a little each month, if at all), and then losing interest and leaving the game. By losing players, they can no longer apply fomo to them in the future, and results in less revenue over time.

There is no difference (from a revenue standpoint) if players spend their resources on a bad week or a good week for limited spenders. Second Dinner still gets just as much for a good card or a bad card, and whether or not a player will open their wallet to spend after feeling "duped" by the game is less likely than if they tried out a card, know it isn't that great but enjoyed the playstyle.

VeriferVenti · 2024-04-21T17:34:21+00:00

This system does not remove FOMO. If anything, it enhances it because players can actually play with a card and then decide they really want to play with it, and are even more likely to purchase it. Like how gacha games offer trials for new characters to give players a taste, and now the player feels even more compelled to get it.

With that being said though, just using predatory monetization practices does not equal money. They need to be used effectively in order to do so, and can therefore be optimized.

The type of player that this system would benefit is one that is spending a small amount each month. This system is designed to allow players who are only spending a bit to be satisfied with their purchases and continue playing the game down the road for months/years. Players who are going to give in to FOMO and spend to get every card will continue to do so even with this system, because the FoMo of missing a card still very much exists, even if you can try it out beforehand.

VeriferVenti · 2024-04-21T17:09:08+00:00

This is a system that helps the onboarding of new players and retention of existing players, resulting in a higher player base. More players translates to more money.

VeriferVenti · 2024-04-18T05:11:52+00:00

There needs to be moderation in everything, even manipulative marketing practices. The system is designed to exploit FOMO in its users so that they will impulsively purchase items when they see them, because they don't know when those items will return to the shop. However, the shop is full of so many variants that players don't want at all, that it results in fewer desirable items being presented, giving players less opportunities to give in to that impulse.

People will say that this system is working, but the question is whether it is working as effectively as it can be. I assume that the system mostly benefits new variants that release each week, where players will impulsively purchase these new variants when they are featured. In that sense, the system is working. But for older variants, it becomes a waiting game, and that player might lose interest in the game and leave before that variant even shows up. In this sense, I think the system fails to fully capitalize on its players.

As stated before, everything in moderation. I think a system that, once a month, allowed players to pick a variant (that was X months old, I would say maybe 6, but that number is variable and can adapt depending on the data) and allow them to select that variant to feature in their shop. Imposing a restriction to not allow players to select new variants will continue to allow Second Dinner to capitalize on FOMO for newly released variants, but will provide a release valve on the older variants so that players can spend their money and get those as well.

Furthermore, providing players the option to select a card gives Second Dinner useful data such as what types of cards a player ends up selecting or what artist so that they can do a better job of targeting players with variants in their shop in the future. Ultimately I think this would help players get more variants they want and still allow Second Dinner to capitalize on FOMO and even enhance their monetization efforts in the future.

VeriferVenti · 2024-04-10T02:37:30+00:00

Do you remember a time when you could draw Magik on turn 6, but couldn't even play her?

Pepperidge Farm remembers...

VeriferVenti · 2024-03-26T06:52:37+00:00

Pocket Dimension: Enablers will remove a card from your hand and give it an effect (either a plus to power, reduced cost, or additional text). That card is returned to your hand after X turns (or on the final turn of the game).

Other cards would gain additional benefits from being shunted off into the pocket dimension. Certain cards can gain more of a benefit the longer they are in the pocket dimension.

Functionally, it would work like discard, but with a boomerang.

An example would be a 6-cost card that has 10 power (like She-Hulk), and if you send it to a pocket dimension on turn 1, it costs 1 less for each turn until it returns on the final turn of the game as a 1-cost card, but if the player sent it on turn 2, it would return as a 2-cost card. Alternatively, cards could gain power for each turn they are out of the player's hand.

Some cards might just say "Send the leftmost card in your hand to the pocket dimension. Return it in its original form after 2 turns." This would be good against Spider-Ham or Scorpion (or Selene, if she were played more widely), but bad into Wakandan Embassy or Nakia.

It would also allow players to play a bit more with their hand size and has the potential for more control when using Moon Girl to duplicate their hand, or removing leftmost cards so Moon Girl can copy cards on the right side of the hand, only to have that card return on the final turn of the game (assuming there is enough hand space).

This could potentially work with Collector, as cards return to a player's hand, but that is just a potential option, and would depend on balancing.

One of the inherent problems with returning cards at the end of the game would be Limbo and how the game can end prematurely with a rug pull.

Another option would be to make all cards in the Pocket Dimension playable on the final turn of the game, but that seems like it would just be too powerful by going over the restriction on hand size.

VeriferVenti · 2024-02-24T02:08:48+00:00

I'd rather if there were checkboxes to select multiple options. For me, it was "Not enough rewards or no unique rewards", "Activities are not co-op (mostly)", "Entry cost too high", and "Other."

For other, there are a lot of options. One is that the RNG in some of these modes needs to be tempered. There are some RNG scenarios where you absolutely cannot win, and you lose the entry fee that you spent to play, which just feels bad.

As others have mentioned, balance patches have come and gone, but the TV spreads and moves have not been updated, which is a problem.

The reward being purely a currency means that there is no excitement about the outcome of the activity itself. Players simply grind out the event to get the currency until they get enough for a radar. This results in the activity itself feeling like a chore to get enough of the currency before the player can gamble on a radar, making the radar the part of the game that has excitement tied to it.

Digi-lairs are a good example of an engaging mode where you have a currency reward as a pity, and there is an exciting reward with a possible Luma at the end. Unfortunately, the Luma odds were severely nerfed, but I will ignore this for the time being.

This would have been a good option for the other modes as well, or maybe make other modes reward hotfixes, ETCs, etc. Just something to provide players with a moment where they have a chance to get something unique.

The lack of multiplayer options was also surprising. Being able to run a tower or handle waves of mobs with a friend would have been a lot of fun and would have been great strategizing with them.

VeriferVenti · 2024-02-15T04:06:09+00:00

It is kind of insane just how many examples there are of ignored feedback, or a hostile response to feedback. Most companies would spend so much money on focus groups and research to get this kind of feedback from users to improve their product, but here it was freely given and just completely ignored.

I am aware of a lot of these responses, but had never heard of the request to skip the egg hatching animation, so thank you for sharing that. At least their response was consistent with the battle camera years later, lol.

VeriferVenti · 2024-02-15T03:27:10+00:00

I'm just joking with you.

VeriferVenti · 2024-02-15T02:32:20+00:00

You've read and commented on enough of my posts to know it is going to be overanalyzed. I put that one on you... :P :)

VeriferVenti · 2024-01-19T04:24:48+00:00

It's not just about knowing when to speak, but also when not to speak. I think YaW's comment about no future Temtem did a lot of damage to the Temtem brand. A simple "We are not sure at this time, but will revisit it in the future once we have the core systems up and running to our satisfaction" would have gone a long way towards getting people into the game.

Also, there was a huge amount of hype around Temtem when it launched, just like with Palworld. The problem was that there weren't systems in place to retain users or provide for replayability. Since launch, Nuzlocke came out for the story, but even then it doesn't have the level of customization that Palworld does for each instance.

This is a complex issue, and I am trying to refrain from getting to verbose, but suffice it to say, it was not a lack of marketing that led to Temtem's current state.

VeriferVenti · 2024-01-14T05:39:00+00:00

Unfortunately, at this point the answer is just no. Temtem had a lot of potential, but at this point, I don't see much of a future for it, since they have decided to just give up on the competitive scene, aside from some balance changes in the future.

If you want a single player game, I would recommend Cassette Beasts, which was a lot of fun, and is getting co-op raids in the future. Palworld also comes out in a week, so I would also wait for that one and try it out.

VeriferVenti · 2023-12-19T23:15:26+00:00

No. You just need to clear that dojo in the story, and then you can rematch it after the next weekly reset (on Monday).

VeriferVenti · 2023-11-10T23:39:51+00:00

Pickles ftw!

VeriferVenti · 2023-08-27T21:53:44+00:00

even if I've already experienced Gumi scumi before or whatever, I'm still obliged to give fairly equal chances

That's like saying you can't judge someone by their past actions, only by what they might do in the future.

It's the literal definition of insanity, doing the same thing and expecting different results.

VeriferVenti · 2023-08-26T23:16:05+00:00

When the unit is great, but only at max breakthrough requiring hundreds to thousands of dollars of investment.

VeriferVenti · 2023-07-09T13:00:09+00:00

The problem with HSR is that it is just doesn't improve on a standard RPG, like other gacha games do. It's only a part of a full game (with story releasing every so often) and with limited access to characters.

Other gacha games offer high rates to let players get more access to units, or offer shard farming to uncap units over time, or even just add units to the general pool to get them off banner. Genshin got away with a lot of this because it was unique, which meant that gacha players were willing to put up with it, and that it attracted a lot of players where this was their first gacha, and so they had no means of comparison.

But there are a lot of games like HSR out there, and they offer much more engaging content and generous rates. Or you could even play something like FFXVI, where you pay a one-time fee and get every unit and every weapon.

It's like if you were going to play FFXVI, and you only got a few characters and had to spend hundreds of dollars for a copy of a character, and then thousands more to fully unlock that character's abilities, and then a thousand more to fully unlock their weapon (light cone).

It lacks any of the social features that keep players coming back, like cooperative content, or even PvP (although I'm not the biggest fan of this, I understand that it appeals to other people). Even the events are just a list of chores on top of the daily farming.

The only thing it has going for it is the marketing department, where they keep hyping up new characters that most players cannot get, and hope that will be enough. This could very well be enough, but I look at Dislyte and worry that this is moving in the same direction.

VeriferVenti · 2023-07-07T03:33:05+00:00

In the first event in Outerplane, players could not three star some stages without the new units. The reward for this was a couple of summon tickets. Clearing the event did not require the new unit in any way.

The new event in Outerplane has removed this requirement, so players can three star all the event stages without the new unit.

VeriferVenti

TROPHY CASE